Affirmative Action Revisited

A lot of folk seem to believe that affirmative action days have come and gone. Whereas they might have agreed that it was important to have affirmative action at one time, now that time is over and there should be a level playing field for everyone. The problem is that the playing field is still not level and over the past few decades has gotten worse.

I’m talking here about more the racial and gender issues, but the most important issue that has been behind those movements – socio-economic movements. In the early and mid 20^th century there were significant strides made towards socio-economic equality. It came out of Keynesian economics, the civil rights movement, the feminist movements and the like. And, the government played a crucial role in that progress. But at the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century we have seen much of the progress erode and the middle classes shrink and the poorer classes suffer. We seem to have understood it better in 1966 with the report Equality of Educational Opportunity and this year marks the 25^th anniversary of the book The Truly Disadvantaged.

Poverty is worsening in our country with students attending low-income schools from 34% in 1999 to 47% in 2008 according to a 2010 Brooking Institution report The Suburbanization of Poverty where it was found more poor people live in the suburbs than in the primary cities.

And what we hear is the need to reduce government spending, a good deal of that in education, which will just continue to drag down the economic at the expense of the middle and lower classes. Perhaps that helps explain the popularity of Downton Abbey of PBS as we see the rise of feudal type class systems and more of us belong downstairs; we identify with those characters.

The times of the haves and have-nots is returning big time. Jesus told us “you cannot serve God and mammon (wealth and greed).” It is the false god of the ultra wealthy and it is there worship of it that has far reaching implications on our society. Jesus was not against material well being, he encouraged it, but not for a few but for all.

Folk often think of Jesus being poor and even thinking being poor was good; balderdash. Remember when he was born he was given gold, frankincense and myrrh; that is wealth. Joseph could afford a donkey to travel and had a good trade. I find no evidence in scripture that Jesus was poor or that he saw being materially poor as a good thing. He just wanted us to be generous with the gifts God gave us.

¹⁹“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. ²⁰Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. ²¹It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.  ~ Matthew 6

¹⁷Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage— ¹⁸to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. ¹⁹If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life. ! 1 Timothy 6

Democracy gives us the opportunity to do what Jesus taught; to share the wealth. May God be with us in doing so.